Christine M. Martin, dean of the WVU Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism, has been appointed vice president for Institutional Advancement effective April 1, President David C. Hardesty Jr. announced today.

“I am very pleased that Dean Martin has agreed to assume this critical position for WVU . She has extensive administrative, academic and media experience. She is one of our outstanding administrators and I have the utmost confidence in her abilities,”Hardesty said.

Martin will oversee the University’s imaging, branding, advocacy, integrated marketing and recruitment marketing efforts. As WVU ’s chief communications and marketing officer, she will guide Institutional Advancement’s news, television productions, web, editing, graphics, printing and event management units as well as the Visitors Resource Center and the Mountaineer Parents Club.

Martin joined the School of Journalism in 1990 as an assistant professor. She served as an associate professor, director of the school’s undergraduate writing program, news editorial sequence chair and interim dean before being named the permanent dean in May 2000.

Since 1997, Martin has co-directed the summer reporting and writing fellowships for college graduates at the prestigious Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla. She has also been a writing coach and newsroom training specialist for the West Virginia Press Association since 1992.

Prior to joining WVU , Martin served as an English and journalism instructor at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa., and also as a reporter and editor for the Herald-Standard in Uniontown, Pa., and the Greensburg Tribune-Review.

She received her undergraduate degree in English from California University of Pennsylvania and her masters degree in journalism from the University of Maryland, where she is currently an American Studies doctoral candidate.

“I am honored to accept this position and excited to be able to serve WVU in this role,Martin said.

Hardesty said that while an acting dean for the School of Journalism will be named in the near future, Martin will remain actively involved in the strategic direction and administration of the school.

Her appointment to the vice presidency is for one year.

Martin replaces Carolyn Curry, who has served as the executive officer for communications and then vice president since 1996. Curry is relocating to Delaware in the spring where her husband Dan is a school superintendent.